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aviatrickss · 7 years

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Hey, so I decided to post my first response for JayRoy week (late????? me???? never????) even though the rest of it isn’t done. I’ll post it on Ao3 when it’s completely done but for now this is a good way to update (read: get validation).

First prompt was ‘Robin’.

(please let me know if you have any critiques I will love you forever and write you anything you want pls)

Roy really only meets Jason once before he dies. And it’s all jumbled and strange in his head because he met Jason and then he met Robin before really knowing that both of them were the same.

He hadn’t really been happy to be in Gotham in the first place. Apparently the super-genius science fair he was in was run by Wayne Tech or one of their bajillion satellite companies. And, of course, when Ollie found out that they had to go to Batman’s city he basically flipped a shit and/or tried to bribe the competition organizers to move it to Star City or Metropolis or Russia or literally anywhere else. They said no, and Ollie decided the only thing to do was sulk.

Which is fine by Roy, really, because that’s just Ollie, and it’s not like he’s any fonder of the Bat than Ollie is. Batman’s the guy who threw out Nightwing, and yeah, Roy’s pretty sure Nightwing sees him as an annoying little brother, and the Titans have only been a thing for like, three months, but still.

The point is, Roy just tells himself that he just has to get to the fair. And then he can nerd out with a bunch of other kids and there will be a shit-ton of lasers probably, and it will all be worth it.

Roy does not make it to the fair.

The thing about being the ward of the world’s third most famous billionaire (although there’s no way Ollie would ever admit Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne beat him out) is that things balance out more than one might think.

For instance: because Roy is rich, he gets all kinds of materials and toys and labs to build whatever latest gadget is jumping around in his brain. He gets to fly to conventions and test runs and semi-secret labs all around the world. And, very occasionally, he gets to enter competitions and show off what he can do with a few scraps of metal, a computer chip, and a wrench, and it rocks.

However: because Roy is rich, he is always being kidnapped by asshats who have no idea that he’s not only a genius inventor, but also a fucking superhero. He has to miss out on a fair number of the amazing conventions and test runs and competitions because he’s busy being tied to a chair and praying that no one starts talking about cutting off fingers and putting them in boxes as ‘messages’ because that’ll probably fuck him up as both an inventor and an archer.

And of course, Gotham is like, the birthplace of all fuckwits, so he really should have known something like this was going to happen.

Roy wakes up with his mouth tasting like cotton and his arms yanked back and tied around a pipe. He’s learning not to mind the fuzziness that comes from being unconscious, the last remnants of nothingness that slip away as he blinks, realizes what happened.

It doesn’t really scare him. He’s got a little knife up his sleeve, and if worst comes to worst he can always rescue himself.

But Ollie’s drilled into him enough times that he needs to at least try and wait for a rescue. Because of secret identities and all that. Which, Roy thinks is bull, because Ollie’s stupid goatee is a much greater threat to their secret identities than anything that he could do.

Mostly he’s just disappointed about the fair. He really thought he had a shot at winning this time, even though Ollie and him spent half their time trying to dumb down the project so that no one would start wondering why Oliver Queen’s ward was capable of designing military-grade tech.

“Worst weekend ever,” Roy mumbles. He leans his head back against the cool pipe, hoping that Ollie comes soon. Hell, he’d even settle for Batman at this point.

There’s a scraping noise from his left, and Roy just about has a heart attack. Craning his neck, he sees a small figure stirring over by another pipe. Roy frowns- he’s still kind of dizzy from being knocked out, and all he can really think about is how he’s going to have to put on the ‘panicked rich kid’ act.

“Son of a…” the other kid mumbles. He seems to be Roy’s age, with curly black hair and dazed teal eyes. He shifts around a little, taking stock just like Roy did just a bit earlier. After a couple of minutes he stops squirming and huffs, his eyes drifting over to where Roy is. Roy’s presence seems to surprise him and he blurts, “Who the hell are you?”

Rude. “Who the hell are you,” Roy fires back.

“Jason Todd,” the other boy says. “Now what-”

“Bruce Wayne’s ward?” Duh. Roy probably should have recognized him, but Ollie had a pretty strict embargo on all Bruce-Wayne-related stuff. “Why would someone kidnap the two richest kids in the world?”

“Okay, first of all, Red, don’t interrupt me,” Jason snaps. “Second of all-”

“Red?!” Roy snorts.

“You did it again!” Jason exclaims. “Look, you were being a prick about introducing yourself, so now you have to deal with the snappy nickname I came up for you.”

Roy huffs.

“Second of all,” Jason continues. “This is Gotham.” He says that like it should explain everything.

Actually it probably does.

They sit in silence for a couple of minutes before Roy finally says, “I’m Roy Harper.”

“Nope,” Jason says immediately. “Too late. You’re Red for life now.”

Roy glares at him and Jason grins back. Roy sighs. “So, does Batman usually come or what?”

Jason nods. “Yeah, and he’s usually pretty speedy about it.”

Roy narrows his eyes a little and Jason blinks innocently. It’s not like ‘speedy’ is an uncommon word but…

Okay, it’s entirely possible that Roy is just being paranoid. Being kidnapped a tied to a pipe will do that to you.

“What are you even doing in Gotham anyways?” Jason asks. “Can’t be a business thing, I’d know about that.”

His smug tone makes Roy want to barf. Rich kids.

And yeah, okay, technically Roy is also a rich kid. But Roy is not a douchebag, so there.

Roy considers just not talking anymore, but Jason seems like the kind of kid who doesn’t give up easy. “Science fair,” he finally mumbles miserably. God. He probably won’t get to do anything that fun for at least half a year.

“That big egghead one up at the convention center?” Jason asks, sounding somewhat impressed. Roy jerks his head in a nod and Jason goes silent. Roy gets the feeling that the kid is reevaluating him.

“Sorry you had to miss it,” Jason finally says. “Being a hostage is kinda a full-time gig, huh?”

Despite himself, Roy smiles. Just a little.

“I had to miss school today,” Jason laments.

Roy gives him a look, because that cannot be an actual statement coming out of somebody’s mouth.

“I like school,” Jason says sullenly, sticking his tongue out at him.

“I am so sorry,” Roy says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. But he’s still kind of smiling a little. “My heart bleeds for you-”

The door at the other end of the room slams open and light spills in, practically blinding Roy.

“For the love of God!” some guy is yelling. Strong Gotham accent. Probably from the poorer sections of the city. “Would you kids fuckin’ pipe down? Jesus Christ, you’re makin’ it hard not to just slit your throats…”

“I’m so fucking sorry,” Jason snaps from Roy’s left. “This whole situation must be really hard for you, how can we help?”

Roy’s vision is starting to clear up, and as the goon snarls something at Jason, Roy gets his first good look at the room.

Probably an old storage room, although it’s been cleared out. Nothing left but dust and the support poles, which he and Jason are tied to. The open door leads only to a blank hallway, and Roy can’t see anything else past that. The man stalking towards Jason is wearing a dumb-looking faux-leather jacket, and Roy would bet his inheritance that the symbols on the back are gang-related.

Also, seeing as how Jason is one-hundred-percent about to get his ass kicked, Roy feels that it’s okay to slip the little switchblade out of his sleeve so that he can start sawing at his ropes. If anyone asks, he’ll say he found a nail or something.

Suddenly there’s an ear-piercing scream from beyond the open door.

Hostages and crook alike all freeze, the three of them staring out into the hallway. After that awful scream comes another, and then a burst of gunfire, the sound of something heavy breaking.

The poor gang-member looks like he wants to piss himself. Jason, on the other hand, has the smallest of satisfied smiles on his faces. It gives Roy the dawning realization that even the non-criminal Gothamites are fucking insane.

The sounds of carnage from outside stop. There’s nothing but a yawning silence and Roy is starting to understand why people are so in awe of the Bat. He knows that it’s Batman out there, and he still half wants to start screaming.

They’re all so focused on the open door that Roy’s the only one who notices when a grate in the ceiling smoothly moves from its place, leaving a hole in the wall. Something small drops through.

That’s a really nice smoke grenade, is all that Roy has time to think before the thing explodes at the whole room is shrouded in mist.

The gangster starts shrieking, which would be kind of funny except for the fact he also decides to start blindly shooting his gun. Roy curses and starts hacking away at his ropes. Even though Batman is physically in the room rescuing them, Jason still seems like the kind of kid who gets shot anyways.

Finally the ropes around his arms give, and Roy surges upward- only to crash into someone else.

“Ow, what the fuck, Red?” Jason’s voice comes from right beside him. “How’d you get free?”

“Stray Batarang,” Roy lies easily. “What about you?”

“Same,” Jason says. Roy can barely see him through the mist, even though they’re less than half a foot apart. “I didn’t know if Batman got you too, so I crawled over here to see.”

That’s…. Actually that’s kind of nice. In a dumb way. In a dumb, suicidal, should-have-let-the-real-hero-handle-it way.

“Thanks,” Roy mumbles.

“Boys,” says a deep voice above them. Roy seriously almost pees himself, because he hadn’t even noticed the shooting stop, and now Batman is looming over him like the fucking Grim Reaper.

Roy shoots to his feet, Jason doing the same beside him. “Holy fucking shit, Batman!” Jason chirps. There doesn’t really seem to be a follow-up to that so Roy mumbles, “Um, thanks for saving our lives.”

Batman scans over Jason before turning his attention to Roy, “Are you two injured?”

“Little woozy from the drugs,” Roy says. “We’re okay though.” He knows Batman’s never gonna take him seriously, but the least he can do is let him know that he already checked to make sure the civilian wasn’t bleeding out.

“Can I have your autograph?” Jason asks.

Roy kind of expects for Batman to maybe spritz Jason with some more knockout gas or something, but he just says, “No.”

“Fine,” Jason says. “But then you owe me a favor.”

“Oh?” Batman says. And Roy is just watching the whole trainwreck because he has never heard anyone talk to Batman like that. Well, maybe Wonder Woman. But she’s a literal goddess, and Jason’s a bratty preteen.

“Next time,” Jason says in a very serious tone. “Bring Robin. ‘Cause you’re cool, but… not that cool.”

Roy makes a strangled yelping noise before he shoves his hands over his mouth in horror. Batman doesn’t seem to notice though, he just studies Jason for another moment and-

And Roy thinks he might be dead or unconscious or dreaming or something, because he swears that Batman’s lips twitch up in the tiniest of smiles.

“The GCPD is on their way. Your kidnappers have been dealt with,” Batman says. Without another word, he turns and vanishes back into the smoke.

“Wow, he really is a grumpy asshole!” Jason says fondly.

“Come on, idiot,” Roy mutters, tugging the other boy towards the door.

By the time they stumble out of the building, the GCPD is already assembling on the front steps. The two of them are quickly separated and hustled to ambulances. The last the Roy sees of Jason Todd, he’s smiling as Bruce Wayne pulls him into a bearhug.

“Sorry you missed your science fair, kiddo,” Ollie says, putting an arm around his shoulder.

“Eh,” Roy says. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“Roy!”

Roy has this awful fluttery feeling in his stomach when he turns. Jason is sitting up on Bruce’s shoulders, waving frantically at him while the billionaire just looks befuddled. Roy waves back and Jason’s smiles.

“See you around, Red!”

Roy snorts and rolls his eyes. But the fluttery feeling doesn’t go away until they’re almost back at the hotel.

Of course, Ollie decides that the only way to cheer Roy up is to go on patrol. In Batman’s city. Without permission.

It’s actually a very nice attempt at cheering him up, and Ollie looks so sincere that Roy can’t shut him down.

Besides, flying through the night does make Roy feel better. It eases the helplessness, makes him feel like less of a failure. And it’s not like there’s a shortage of criminals in Gotham anyways. Batman can spare a few.

It only takes an hour for Batman to track them down. One minute they’re landing on a rooftop, the next, Ollie and Batman are snarling at each other.

“Oh, fuck me,” Roy mumbles. He seriously considers just plopping down on the rooftop while they duke it out. He probably has some half-finished something in his belt that he could work on. Or he maybe he can just sneak back to the hotel and catch a movie.

“They’re the worst, aren’t they?” a sympathetic voice says next to him.

And after hanging out with Dick for three months, Roy’s at the point where people appearing silently at his shoulder doesn’t make him jump anymore. He just turns his head.

Robin’s not really what he expected. He’s about Roy’s age and small, yeah, but with long legs and broad shoulders. He’ll probably grow up to be a giant or something - after all, Dick’s not exactly tiny anymore. His curly black hair is ruffled slightly by the wind and there’s a smattering of freckles across his nose and he has the most wicked smirk on his face.

Roy doesn’t know all that much about him. Dick has bad blood with the kid because of Bruce, and it’s not like Ollie’s interested in getting more info on the Bat’s newest sidekick. Roy feels wrong-footed- he doesn’t know if he should give the kid the cold-shoulder out of loyalty to Dick or what.

“Let me guess,” Robin says. He strokes his chin thoughtfully and Roy is pretty sure he’s just hamming it up, but still. “You feel awkward because you’re buddies with Wingding and he’s not my number one fan.” Robin lowers his hand and smiles. “Plus we just busted you and Robin Hood.”

“You didn’t bust us,” Roy says in exasperation. Honestly.

“Whatever you say,” Robin says, although the smirk doesn’t disappear from his face. “I am a highly-trained detective though.”

“Not highly-trained in wearing pants though,” Roy says. It’s dumb, really dumb, but he’s flustered.

Robin snorts, and Roy gets the sense that he’s rolling his eyes behind the mask. “Look at Discowing’s costume and tell me you think I’m the one who designed this monstrosity. Besides,” the other boy strikes a pose. “Tell me I don’t have the legs for it.”

“Oh my God,” Roy says. He turns to look back at Ollie and Bats, mostly just to hide the blush creeping over his cheeks. This is not happening. Focus on lasers, Roy, lasers.

“What’d you do for the science fair thingy?”

Shock more than anything makes Roy turn back to Robin. “How-”

“Batman told me about the whole thing,” the other boy says nonchalantly. “I didn’t know you were into all that. I always figured you and Arrow had like, a lab monkey or something make your stuff.”

“Lab monkey,” Roy says. “At your service.”

Robin laughs. “To be fair I kinda figured the same about Batman. Before, y’know,” he gestures at his costume.

“How did-”

“Speedy.”

Ollie stalks over to the two of them, Batman trailing behind him. “Time to go,” Ollie says. He’s red with anger and Roy wonders what Batman said to get him to fold so quickly. Usually their arguments last forever.

Roy turns back to Robin, “See you around, I guess.”

Batman places a hand on Robin’s shoulder and there’s some understanding there, something that passes between them. Then Batman is grappling off the roof, disappearing into the night.

Robin fishes his own grapple off of his belt, gives Roy a one-handed salute. “See you around, Red.”

And before the words hit home, he’s stepped backward off of the roof and into the darkness.

Roy doesn’t really sleep that night. The words chase themselves around his head, because it can’t be coincidence, it can’t be a mistake.

See you around, Red.

He thinks about asking Nightwing (Dick Grayson?). But then, he thinks, it would get back to Batman somehow. And Roy would end up getting dangled off of a building or something.

Besides, something about it feels so… private. Just an inside joke, between the two of them. Robin never had to say his name because he knew, he knew, that Roy would get it.

Why would he tell Roy?

Why would such a vibrant, beautiful, bright boy give his biggest secret to a screwup like Roy?

It doesn’t make any sense and he can’t get it out of his head.

But, of course, he does.

They return to Star City, Ollie grumbling all the way about everything that happened in Gotham. And then Roy is so busy running between missions with the Titans and Star City stuff that Jason’s smile falls out of his head. He falls back into the smothering loneliness and misery that never seem to go away.

He wishes he could make it go away.

And then somehow years have passed and Roy is teetering on the brink of self-destruction and Robin is dead.

Jason is dead.

And in the wake of Dick’s awful grief (because he knows by now that it’s Dick, stood there and faked surprise when the older boy revealed himself), Roy ignores the awful wave of emotion churning inside of him.

Because it was one day. One night. He didn’t know Jason.

And in a couple of years, heroes will whisper about the two of them. The two failures, the two blotches on an otherwise clean history. The addict and the dead boy. The fallen heroes who didn’t fall quite gracefully enough to get remembered.

In the secret history of the world’s greatest heroes, Jason and Roy are forever linked, a footnote somewhere near the back.

It’s not how he imagined they’d end up together.

#JayRoyweek #Jason Todd #Roy Harper #trix-fix #text #long post #fic #please comment/talk to me #i crave attention #i love u all martha

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